[✐fan essay] “Brands” Companion Essay: Cultural Crossroads and Malik's Clothing
Let's talk about Malik's clothes. I'd post pictures, but the computer my scanner works with is acting up, and if you don't know what Malik looks like I have no idea how you found this journal. (Stick around, however. By all means.)
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In the manga as Malik's hugging his dad's corpse, all weepy and bloody (and already wondering "who did this to you") one of the earrings does fall off, at least. Somehow. -_-; But yeah, if it's the same pair then he did take at least one off of his father before leaving to use in his own ears.
I definitely see there being a control-factor to the way Malik dresses - to everything he does, basically. He's been nominally in control his whole life (as the heir, someone v. important, which is a role he ingrains) but it's not until he gets aboveground that he's really in charge and I can only see the difficulties in founding an organization of the size and infamy of the Ghouls in that little time, so young, as heightening the control obsession. He has to be cautious and things have to go just as he planned them, or else stuff could fall apart really easily early on. And that translates to the impression he wants to make physically. I also wonder if there's a bit of materialism in there...
I have to admit, I attribute Malik revealing his scar in private/in front of Isis in that one anime flashback as partially him being a drama llama. But I do think there's this need to be comprehended - this is exactly why I feel the way I feel - that, as you say, he can't express via revealing the scars because that'd be showing too much in more ways than one. Really, it's no wonder once he finally finds the Pharaoh that he's quite insistent on explaining exactly why this revenge is taking place. He's had this driving his actions for years but nobody around but Rishid, who knows it already, is the right audience for it. I kind of wish they'd done more with the Pharaoh's musing that since he has no memories, for all he knows he really was responsible for the death of Malik's father...he and Yugi never seem concerned about that angle for long.
Oh, I totally agree that some of the tombkeepers are associating with the modern world, especially those in servant positions (and I'm guessing Isis as an Ishtar but a woman is sort of like in charge of said servants, though of course their dad has the last word in everything). I just wasn't sure if Rishid would be one of those people because if so, I would think it'd be a lot easier for Malik to convince Rishid to take him to the surface than it would Isis - and it looks like most of Rishid's duties consist of "look after Malik", who's supposedly never leaving, to boot. It makes things much more understandable if Rishid has gone up and knows how to interact with the modern world at least a little bit, though.
And now that I'm thinking about it I can come up with a few possible scenarios for why Rishid might have been to the surface but Isis would have still been Malik's best bet as a tour guide, or even why Rishid going up might have heightens Malik's interest in doing so (RISHID GOT TO WHY CAN'T IIII) now I'm also seeing Malik asking for modern language lessons though I'm sure he has a lot to learn already
But yeah. Thanks for reading! I need to get more concise. @_@
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